Ernest Hemingway's Narrative Style

AleksandarHrubenja

Profesor Ivana ĐurićPaunović

17.12.2004.

The Sun Also Rises: Hemingway’s Style and Narrative Technique

Introduction

As one of the most significant writers of the 20th century, possessing a unique style, Ernest Hemingway’s work rarely left one unmoved. While The New York Times said of The Sun Also Rises “No amount of analysis can convey the quality of The Sun Also Rises. It is a truly gripping story, told in a lean, hard, athletic narrative prose that puts more literary English to shame." (The New York Times 1926)”In other places it was not received as well. In 1933 his books were put to the flame in Germany’s capital, "as being a monument of modern decadence" (Nobelprize.org). Set after the First World War, Hemingway’s first novel depicts the story of a group of expatriates, both British and American, whose only way of dealing with the horrors of the war is through alcohol and meaningless sex. The novel reflected reality, as Ernest Hemingway was surrounded by people like this. The novels events are

A successful newspaper man, who harbors a great passion for bullfighting, he is both a member and an outsider to the Lost Generation. The damage done to him by the war provides him with the disillusionment so prevalent in his generation, but it is also the possession of passion (any kind, it does not matter if it is directed to something as inane as bullfighting) which removes him from them. This insider/outsider dichotomy gives him the ability to be an excellent narrator and commentator on his generation. Jake is also a very passive character, almost like a spectator of life, a trait that is a boon for narrators. Everything we see happen in the novel, we see from Jakes perspective, as is typical for first person narration. An important element in first person narratives is that the narrator is subjective, which means that we can’t have a realistic, clear view of the events happening in the